Donald Trump Supreme Court Candidates: List Of Potential Conservative Nominees

President Donald Trump will pick his potential Supreme Court nominees two weeks after entering the Oval Office, he said at a news conference last week. Vice President Mike Pence said the team was “winnowing” the list, which consisted of 21 conservative nominees, CNN reported. He also said the list was “made up of mostly federal appellate court judges.”

Those on the list include Steven Colloton, Neil Gorsuch, Thomas Hardiman, Raymond Kethledge, William Pryor, and Diane Sykes. Michigan Supreme Court Justice Joan Larsen, Amul Thapar, Sen. Mike Lee, Don Willett, David Stras, Raymond Gruender, Margaret Ryan and Sen. Ted Cruz are also on the list. Here are some of the potential nominees to watch:

1. Michigan Supreme Court Justice Joan Larsen. Larsen, 48, a former Scalia clerk, was named to the state’s high court by Gov. Rick Snyder, a Republican. In 2002, she became an assistant attorney general in the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel. Larsen, who received her law degree from Northwestern University in Illionois and clerked for the late Justice Antonin Scalia, also taught law at the University of Michigan.

2. Judge William H. Pryor Jr. Pryor Jr., 54, was nominated by President George W. Bush in 2004. Before serving the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit in Alabama, he was Alabama’s attorney general in 1997, which came shortly after his predecessor, Jeff Sessions, was elected to the U.S. Senate as a Republican. Pryor attended Northeast Louisiana University and then graduated from Tulane University Law School in Louisiana in 1987.

3. Judge Thomas Hardiman. Hardiman, 51, who was appointed by Bush in 2007, serves on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3 Circuit in Pennsylvania. He was also a federal district judge for the Western District of Pennsylvania. Hardiman, who was a Notre Dame graduate, practiced law in Washington and Pittsburgh, and was the first in his family to go to college. Reports also said he drove a cab --- before his judicial career, of course.

4. Judge Steven Colloton. Colloton, 53, appointed by Bush in 2003, serves on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit in Iowa. Colloton previously served as a U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Iowa. He graduated from Princeton University in New Jersey and Yale Law School in Connecticut, and later clerked for the late Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist as well as Judge Laurence Silberman of the D.C. Circuit.

5. Judge Neil Gorsuch. Gorsuch, 49, was appointed by Bush in 2006, serves on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit in Colorado. He attended Columbia University in New York, Harvard Law in Massachusetts and Oxford University in the United Kingdom. He then became a deputy assistant attorney general at the Justice Department. Gorsuch also clerked for both current Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy and former Justice Byron White.

6. Judge Diane Sykes. Sykes, 58, appointed by Bush, serves on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit in Wisconsin. The former journalist had been a justice on the Wisconsin Supreme Court since 1999. She was also a trial court judge in both civil and criminal matters. Sykes graduated from Northwestern University in Illinois in 1980 and attended Marquette University School of Law in Wisconsin.

7. Raymond Kethledge. Kethledge is a former clerk to Justice Anthony Kennedy, who currently sits on the 6th Circuit. He served for one year as counsel to the Ford Motor Company, according to reports. Kethledge is turning 50 in mid-December.

8. Amul Thapar. Thapar, 47, born in Michigan, serves on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky. He also served in both government and as private practice. In 2007, Thapar was the first South Asian American to be named to an Article III federal judgeship.

9. Sen. Mike Lee. Lee, 45, a senator from Utah, has never served as a judge, according to reports. However, Lee's father, Rex Lee, once served as the Solicitor General under President Ronald Reagan. Lee's brother, Thomas, currently serves on the Utah Supreme Court, and it has been rumored that he might also be a potential nominee. Lee is good friends with Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who is also another potential candidate.

10. Don Willett. Willett, who worked for Bush, currently sits on the Texas Supreme Court. Willet, 50, once called the President- elect Donald Trump "Darth Trump" on his Twitter page.

11. David Stras. Stras, 42, is a state Supreme Court justice, who sits on the Minnesota Supreme Court. He attended the University of Kansas, and shortly after became a clerk for Justice Clarence Thomas. Stras had also written about constitutional issues and the lowercase Courts.

12. Raymond Gruender. Gruender, 53, was appointed by Bush, serving on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit in Missouri. Before that, he was a prosecutor and served as the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Missouri. He received his law degree from Washington University in St. Louis.

13. Margaret Ryan. Ryan, 52, sits on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces. She's a former clerk to Justice Clarence Thomas and a former active duty Marine serving as a Communications Officer, Judge Advocate and aide de camp.

14. Sen. Ted Cruz. Cruz, 46, a former clerk for Chief Justice William Rehnquist, has served as the junior United States senator from Texas since 2013. Cruz earned his bachelor's at Princeton University and obtained his law degree from Harvard Law School. Cruz, who later served as an adviser to the 2000 presidential campaign of George W. Bush, was a candidate for the Republican nomination for president of the United States in the 2016 election.